


As the World Bleeds and Burns

by morganoconner



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Claiming, M/M, Marking, Romance, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-17
Updated: 2010-03-17
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:01:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/185779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the end of the world, and the only thing they can do is fight to live from one day to the next, traveling a world that is broken apart and bleeding, with no one but each other to lean on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the World Bleeds and Burns

_The flames danced higher as they took hold and wrapped around the wooden pyre, caressing both it and the body it cradled like a gentle lover. Soon they would begin to devour, but in this one moment, they were almost as beautiful as they were heartbreaking. Sam watched from a distance, paying his respects but allowing Dean this ritual on his own, knowing his brother well enough to understand he preferred it that way. Castiel had been his friend, more than anyone else on Earth or in Heaven, and Dean was wearing his cloak of grief and guilt like a shield, impenetrable and immovable._

_The wind picked up, a bite to it that was more like early winter than late summer, and Sam shivered, shoving his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and fighting off the surge of apprehension that crept over him._

_It felt like something was coming. It felt, for the first time, as if the world was truly on the precipice, as if the end was really in sight, like there could be no stopping it._

_Losing Castiel was a blow, a serious one, and not just because of what it would do to Dean. Castiel, even weakened as he had been, had been a treasure trove of obscure facts, thousands of years worth of information locked away in his head, information they had no access to otherwise. Without it, Sam wasn’t sure how they could possibly go on fighting the way they had been._

_He was right to worry, as he stared out at the smoke rising in dark tendrils across a moonlit sky._

_When they lost Castiel, that was when things began to take a turn for the worse._

~*~

“Sam,” Gabriel whispers, nudging him with his foot. “Sam, wake up, we’ve gotta go.”

With a tired sigh, Sam blinks gritty eyes open and peers up at Gabriel in the darkness of the place they’ve settled in for the night. They’ve been lucky, recently, finding apartments and motels and houses that aren’t covered in the stench of rotting flesh, with furniture that isn’t too moth-eaten or threadbare or simply gone, taken by scavengers that have already picked through. This is the third night in a row Sam has woken up in a real bed, and even if he’s still not getting nearly enough sleep, he’s grateful for any sort of reprieve he can get. “Is it already dawn?” he asks, yawning.

“Nearly.”

Sam nods, swinging his legs out of the bed. He’s sad to leave it, since he has no idea when he’ll be able to make use of another one, but daylight hours are the only time they dare to travel. Death waits in the shadows of the night, and so they won’t chance moving about past dusk or before dawn.

“You didn’t get enough sleep,” Gabriel states, his eyes raking over Sam, a worried crease appearing between his brows.

Sam’s smile is more bitter than he intends it to be, but he knows he’ll be forgiven. “No one gets enough sleep anymore,” he says. “Part of the end of the world, I guess. I’ll be fine, Gabriel.” He reaches into his bag, grabs two granola bars. He’s down to only a handful of them, which means another supply run soon, or hoping they get lucky and come across some game they can hunt. Both game and pre-packaged food are scarce, and scavengers are getting better about picking over what they can use.

Gabriel’s hand lands on his shoulder as he’s simultaneously biting into his breakfast and shoving his feet into his well-worn boots. He peers up at the archangel, manages a very small, slightly reassuring smile that Gabriel can’t return. “Sam…”

“I know,” he murmurs. “Don’t worry so much, okay? I know my limits. I’ll be okay.”

Gabriel’s eyes search his for a long moment and then he sighs, nods. “We’ll start heading north today,” he says. “Lots of forest we can find shelter in at night, even if it takes a few days to come across another town. If we keep going east, we’re going to run into a lot of desolate grassland, and no place to hide if they come.”

 _They_ being the reapers, of course. They stick mostly to the night, now. But not always. And not if Lucifer catches wind of where Sam and Gabriel are. “We head north then,” Sam agrees as he stands. He slings his pack over his shoulders, and together they head out into a gray dawn and a world that is slowly burning.

~*~

_Sam sat numb on the guest room bed at Bobby’s, barely able to hear Dean past the rushing sound in his ears. “No…” he managed to say, his voice choked and gasping. “Dean, no!”_

_Dean’s expression was hard, but his eyes told a different story. They spoke of sympathy, and sadness, and love…so much love. Dean loved his brother, he loved Bobby, and he loved the world. That was why he had to do this. That was why he said he had to do this. “Sammy, things are getting worse, and we don’t have any cards left to play,” he said gently. Dean was never gentle, and Sam wanted to hit him for it now._

_“There has to be another way.” He would beg if he had to. He wasn’t above dropping to his knees in supplication to anyone who would listen. His hand clenched, dug into his knee as Dean’s expression remained unchanged._

_“There’s not. You know there’s not.”_

_“But…”_

_Dean sat on the bed beside his brother, wrapped an arm around him, pressed his forehead to Sam’s shoulder. “We’ve tried everything, Sam,” he whispered. “There’s nothing left but this.”_

_“God damn it, Dean…” He grit his teeth against the sob that wanted to escape, knowing that wasn’t what his brother needed right now. Not wanting Dean’s last memory of him to be of tears and hopelessness. He half-turned, just enough to pull Dean to him, wrap him in an embrace that was choking and desperate and full of everything neither of them would ever be able to say._

_“I’m sorry, Sammy. I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough to stop it by myself.” Dean’s hands dug into his shirt and he clung there for a moment before relaxing and pulling away reluctantly._

_“Don’t you dare apologize. Don’t you **dare** ,” Sam growled, wiping furiously at his eyes._

_Dean’s grin was the same as it had always been, but there was a sorrow lingering in his eyes that made it unbearable to look at. He stood, swallowing convulsively, and gripped Sam’s shoulder tightly. “Love you, Sammy,” he said, and was out of the room before Sam could reply._

_He allowed the numb feeling to spread, to take over entirely as the front door opened and slammed shut. As, only a few minutes later, there was a brilliant light that came in through the windows and tried to blind him even through closed eyelids. As, when it was finally gone, he looked out into the yard and watched Dean disappear from his life forever._

~*~

They make good time that day, and Sam is able to ignore the hunger gnawing at his insides better than normal. Gabriel stays mostly quiet, but there’s nothing unusual about that. Something broke in the archangel long before the apocalypse started, and Lucifer winning the ultimate showdown only served to widen the crack that splits him down the middle. The only thing he’s surviving for anymore is Sam, but that’s okay because he’s the only thing Sam is living for as well.

It’s funny, the way love still exists in a world that bleeds itself dry a little more each day.

Gabriel is walking a few steps ahead of him as they make their way deeper into forest. His senses are better attuned to the world around them. Even if he’s all but forced to live as a human would now, there are just some things that as an angel, he’ll always have over Sam. Better senses is one. A lack of hunger is another. So is the lack of a need to sleep. Sam tries not to be bitter, and mostly, he succeeds. It’s not Gabriel’s fault he’s the only angel still hanging out on Earth besides Lucifer and his renegade host. It’s not his fault that if he dared use his powers to help Sam even a little, the devil would be on them in moments.

The point is, he’s a few steps ahead, and so Sam notices immediately when he stops, his head tilted, eyes closed. His expression is relaxed, so Sam doesn’t worry that they’re about to be attacked, or that they’re about to come across other travelers. Neither would be a first, but both would spell more trouble than they’re equipped to deal with right now.

Sam stays silent, knowing better than to speak right now, and when Gabriel reaches down and pulls a throwing knife from its strap on his boot, he grins. _Finally._

Incredibly perfect aim is apparently a Gabriel thing, not an angel thing, because when he throws a knife, it never misses its target. This time is no different, and the blade whistles through the air faster than Sam can blink, faster than he can follow, before, in the distance, he hears a dull thunk, followed by a crashing sound. From his vantage point, he can’t see the target, but it was something substantial, at least.

“Deer,” Gabriel murmurs with a grin. “And a healthy one at that. Gonna eat well tonight, Sammy.”

Sam smiles back, tired but about as happy as he ever gets to be these days. His stomach rumbles at the thought of food, and Gabriel laughs a little. “Let’s go get your dinner,” he says.

~*~

_Pestilence swept through the Dakotas with a focus and determination that led Sam to believe he’d been directed there purposely. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to step into Bobby’s house and find him bloated and rotting in a pool of his own bloody vomit._

_Sam had long since run out of tears, allowing himself to float in a state of frozen disregard for the past few weeks since Dean had said yes. Pretending he didn’t care was easier than realizing he’d lost everything._

_He didn’t think much as he wrapped his only remaining friend in a shroud, built the pyre around him. Didn’t think much as he salted the remains and lit the match. Didn’t think much as he stared unseeingly at bright flames against the night sky, so familiar and yet so very, very different._

_He didn’t think at all as he watched the wind carry the ashes away, or as he grabbed up his pack to continue on his way._

~*~

They make camp not too far from where Gabriel felled the deer. The place they find is little more than a large outcropping of rocks with a clump of trees surrounding it, but it’s more out of sight than any of the other places they’ve come across, and will offer the best protection should someone stumble upon them in the dark. Still, nights like these are when Sam is most grateful that Gabriel is an archangel, and can keep watch without need for rest.

They drag the deer carcass to the camp together, and Gabriel makes short work of bleeding and skinning it while Sam gets a fire going. There’s still enough light that they can risk a fire, but he knows they can’t have it for long. There’s no point in drawing unnecessary attention to themselves unless he’s looking for a quick death.

They stay mostly quiet as they settle in and Sam begins cooking pieces of meat, eating it almost as quickly as it browns because he’s so desperate with hunger. Gabriel watches him with eyes clouded with regret and sadness, and Sam just avoids looking at him altogether after a few minutes.

When he’s finally full enough to be satisfied for the first time in days, he moves to put the fire out, but Gabriel’s hand on his arm stops him. “Leave it,” he says. “We’ll let it die down a little, but I can at least get some jerky made out of the rest of this while you sleep. No point in letting that much good meat go to waste.”

“You sure we can risk it?” Sam asks, hesitating.

“We’re pretty secluded right here. I think it’ll be okay,” Gabriel assures him. “If I hear or sense anything at all, I’ll wake you and we’ll take off, but we don’t know when we’ll come across food again, and you need to eat.”

Sam gives in with a sigh, knowing Gabriel is right. “Thanks,” he murmurs.

Gabriel only nods and continues cutting long strips of meat off the deer.

The sun falls below the horizon, and night takes over again.

~*~

_It seemed fitting, somehow, that the battle was going to take place here. Detroit, in Sam’s mind, was synonymous with the idea of Bad Things Happening, and since it had failed to be the spot where he was destined to say yes, then obviously something else had to happen instead._

_He didn’t know how he’d gotten to be here. He’d gone to sleep halfway across the country, and when he’d woken up, he’d been in an unfamiliar hotel room overlooking the city._

_The city that was burning around him now._

_The first explosion had knocked him from his feet, shaking the foundations of the building and lighting the sky with fire. He’d run, and had been halfway down to the first floor when the second explosion came. By the third, he was exiting the hotel, dodging around the press of people who were screaming and trying to shove each other out of the way in their haste to escape, and that was when he’d caught sight of Lucifer._

_And Michael._

_Even as his gut twisted at the sight of the being who was no longer his brother, he couldn’t help but watch them with a sense of awe and terror. They were locked in combat, both wielding impressive-looking swords that they swung with a grace and confidence that spoke of countless millennia spent fighting. With each strike of metal on metal, the ground quaked and lightning struck from the heavens._

_Sam was rooted to the spot, watching them because he couldn’t do anything else, praying though he knew there was no one left to pray to. His eyes were fixed on Lucifer… Lucifer, who against all odds, had found a way to preserve his vessel, to make it like new again. Lucifer, who clearly no longer needed Sam. Lucifer, who had been weakened the last time they saw him, but now seemed stronger than ever as he fought his brother._

_He watched as Michael, the mightiest warrior in all of Heaven, began to lose ground. He watched his strokes become more forceful, more desperate. He watched him weaken with every moment the fight was drawn out._

_He watched when Lucifer’s sword cut through Michael’s defenses and struck him across his stomach, slicing him open and leaving him gasping as he sank to his knees, a hand pressed to the wound as he tried to keep his insides from spilling out._

_He watched as Michael toppled to the ground and blinding light filled the street as his grace died out._

_He watched the devil laugh._

~*~

Sam wakes trembling and sweating, a scream caught in his throat, the threadbare blanket bunched around him where he’s been thrashing. A hand is pressed down on his chest, and it takes him a few moments to recognize it as belonging to Gabriel as he fights to pull himself out of the dream.

The moment his eyes clear and he comes back to himself entirely, the archangel is on him. Gabriel’s hand clenches, bunching the fabric of Sam’s t-shirt as he bends down and claims his mouth. His tongue traces Sam’s lips while his other hand works at Sam’s belt, and on the hunter’s gasp, his tongue darts inside greedily.

Nimble fingers are unbuttoning his pants and inching their way underneath his boxers, and Sam’s still in a state of barely-consciousness when they close around him. Sam moans into Gabriel’s mouth, hips bucking, and he can feel him smirk. He reaches up and grasps Gabriel’s hips, bringing him closer and tugging until Gabriel takes the hint and moves to straddle Sam’s legs, his hand stroking gently the whole time. His other hand curves around Sam’s head while his mouth moves down, pressing kisses and nipping bites to Sam’s neck. The position should be awkward, but all Sam feels is warmth and closeness and _Gabriel_ , and the dream slowly dissolves and fades away entirely under Gabriel’s ministrations.

It doesn’t take long for him to reach the breaking point, and without warning, Gabriel flicks his wrist, changing the angle, and he’s climaxing, pumping into Gabriel’s fist as the archangel breathes words into his ear in a language he doesn’t know.

He comes down slowly, blinking up into warm eyes lit golden by the low fire beside them. One side of Gabriel’s mouth is quirked upward as he cards gentle fingers through Sam’s hair. “Okay there, Sammy?” he asks.

Sam nods. “Thank you,” he says, as he always does.

Gabriel replies in kind with, “You never need to thank me.”

And they both say, “I love you,” because it’s the end of the world, and they don’t ever know how many more times they’ll have left to say it.

~*~

_After, he would never remember the scream tearing itself from his throat, or the devil’s eyes finding his from where he stood, drunk on the glory of his victory. He would not remember falling to the ground as tears streamed down his face, blurring his vision and choking his breath. He would not remember the ground splitting apart below him as Lucifer stared him down, nor would he remember the howls and screams of the people who were caught in the crossfire, falling into the earth as it shuddered and groaned and cracked and swallowed._

_He **would** remember Gabriel. He would recall with perfect clarity a brilliant form made of the purest light, who grasped his arm and hauled him to his feet and wrapped wings of burning fire around him and took him away from that place while the devil bellowed his rage to the world._

_He would not remember where it was that Gabriel took him, or the wretched sorrow on the archangel’s face when he pulled himself back into his vessel and wrapped Sam in his arms and held him while he shattered into a thousand pieces._

_He **would** remember the perfect darkness of the dreamless sleep Gabriel granted him when his tears ran dry and his throat was raw from screaming._

~*~

Sam lies with his head resting on his arms, staring up at the night, his eyes distant and unfocused. Next to him, Gabriel is propped up on an elbow, gazing down in silent contemplation.

“Hey, Gabriel?” Sam asks after a while, turning his head so his eyes meet the archangel’s. Gabriel’s head tilts in silent query. “What’s your first memory of Michael?”

If Gabriel is taken aback by the question, he doesn’t show it. “His devotion to his family,” he responds promptly, lips quirking in an ironic smile. “Or more specifically, his devotion to our Father.” He pauses, collecting his thoughts. “I was created after him, and my first memory is of our Father instructing him to watch over me. We are created as ‘perfect beings,’ but we still have to learn and become used to the world around us. When Michael first saw me, he…took my hand, for lack of a better way of explaining it, and showed me all of Heaven. Our home. He explained what our purpose was, to love our Father, and to obey him in all things. And I loved Him, I did. But the reverence that my brother spoke of Him with…it was a whole other level. There was nothing Dad did, nothing he said, that Michael could ever perceive as wrong in any way. In some ways, even then I was jealous of his ability to love so perfectly, without fail. I guess even then I was a little messed up.”

Sam’s hand reaches up to the back of Gabriel’s neck and he tugs, causing the archangel to fall into him. He presses their mouths together fiercely, nipping at Gabriel’s bottom lip before pushing him back and glaring at him. “You’re not messed up. You never were, not then, and not later, and not now.”

Gabriel laughs, not bitterly. “Oh, Sammy, we’re both all kinds of messed up and you know it. But it’s okay…we’re messed up together, and that makes it worth it.”

Sam sighs, shakes his head a little, but he’s smiling just a tiny bit, admitting the truth in Gabriel’s words.

“So, quid pro quo Sam. What’s your first memory of Dean?”

The expected burst of pain comes, but Sam is grateful to Gabriel for asking. A part of him needs this, craves this quiet conversation and softly-spoken recounting of the big brother he loved so dearly…misses so desperately. “When I was four years old, Dean started teaching me how to read. My first clear memory is of sitting next to him in the backseat of the Impala, both of us reading a really battered copy of Green Eggs and Ham.” He laughs a little. “Dad got so sick of the constant rhyming that he kept threatening to pull the car over and toss it in the trash…he’d been on a long hunt, or something, I think, and was so tired. And Dean glared at him, full-on glared, and said that he was going to teach me to read no matter what, and Dad could suck it up and deal with it. He said it just like that, too.”

Gabriel’s eyes are focused somewhere over Sam’s shoulder as he sighs out a soft breath. “Not so similar after all, were they?”

“In some ways,” Sam says with a shrug. He waits till Gabriel looks at him again, then says hesitantly, “Do you miss Michael?”

“Every day.”

Sam nods, and after a moment, Gabriel sighs again and lays down, curling into the hunter, content to simply rest until morning.

~*~

_Gabriel never pushed Sam to speak a word to him, and he never tried to get the hunter to leave the motel room, and, most of all, he himself never left. Sam stayed lost in his own dark thoughts for days, staring blankly at the plastered ceiling, or staring blankly at the TV set he never remembered turning on, or staring blankly at the world outside the dirty window. The archangel moved about the room quietly, when he moved at all, and his only real interaction with Sam was to shove food under his nose three times a day and make sure he ate it. If Sam’s dreams stayed pleasantly dark and meaningless, neither of them mentioned it to the other._

_It took Sam a week to finally pull himself together, at least as much as was possible. The next time Gabriel came over to drop a plate of food in front of him (pancakes drowning in maple syrup, and damn if Sam wasn’t starting to get used to the archangel’s sweet tooth already), he reached up and grasped his wrist before he could walk away again. “What are you doing, Gabriel?” he asked, his voice raspy from disuse._

_Gabriel’s eyes went pointedly to Sam’s fingers circling his wrist, and the hunter let go, but didn’t take his eyes away from Gabriel’s. “I’m giving you breakfast,” was his reply, and Sam scowled._

_“I meant, what are you doing **here?** Why did you even save me, in Detroit? It’s over now. Lucifer won, congratulations, you got exactly what you wanted.”_

_Gabriel’s eyes flickered between irritated, miserable and guilty before settling on resigned. “I didn’t want this, Sam. I never wanted this. I **like** this world.”_

_Sam’s eyes are stormy. “You said –”_

_“Hell, I know what I said, you don’t need to repeat it back to me,” Gabriel snarled. “Look, last time I saw you, I was scared. Dean was right. I was petrified of standing up to my family, and I figured it’d be easier to just let whatever would happen happen. But then, I figured if it came down to it, Michael would win. I never thought –”_

_“That much is obvious,” Sam said, his voice low, dangerous. He was well past caring if he pissed off an archangel, Heaven’s most fearsome warriors or not. “Maybe if you **had** , we wouldn’t be standing on the brink of the end of the world right now. Dean wouldn’t be **dead**. If you had just helped –”_

_“I did!” Gabriel yelled, and the ground rumbled ominously, the lights in the room crackling. Visibly, the archangel shuddered, closing his eyes and reigning himself back in. He took a steadying breath, and when his eyes opened again, they were clearer. “I did help. For the last year, I’ve done nothing **but** help. I gave up my disguise, I went after the higher level demons I was able to track. I saved what people I could, I searched for ways to help you and your brother trap Lucifer. Hell, most of the time I wasn’t **helping** , I was searching for you Winchesters, and when that failed, I just kept doing what I could!”_

_Sam blinked, processing this. “You… Really?”_

_“No, I’m lying, clearly that’s why I risked my own ass pulling you out of Detroit from under my brother’s nose.” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “When I felt Castiel die last year…it…I just had to do something. It wasn’t right. **I** wasn’t right, and I finally admitted it. Just wish I had been quicker about it.”_

_They were both quiet, fully realizing all that they had lost, all that had gone wrong. Sam swallowed. “This is really the end, isn’t it? Nothing can stop it now.”_

_Gabriel’s eyes were ancient and deeply saddened. “I’m not sure anything ever could.”_

_“So what do we do? Just…give up?”_

_“We move on,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “Prolong the inevitable for as long as possible. The angels have already left.”_

_Sam stared at him, his head tilting a little. “Why didn’t you go with them?”_

_“There’s no home I have that I would want to go to. So I’ll stay here instead, face whatever end comes for me. Might as well keep you company, at any rate.”_

_Sam never questioned it, never wondered if he should go on by himself. He just silently accepted the archangel by his side, and they began the long wait until the end of all things._

~*~

Dawn burns blood-red, and Sam watches the sun slowly rise with dread curling around and clamping down upon his heart. Gabriel is still curled up next to him, obviously awake, but steadfastly avoiding looking at the sky.

“It was bad enough when he was going to just take out humanity and leave the rest untouched,” Gabriel murmurs, his eyes blinking open slowly and looking up at Sam. “He’s decided to really end the whole damn world. All of Father’s creation…”

Sam swallows. “What do you think he’ll do after that?” he asks, his voice trembling.

“Go after Heaven, I imagine.” Gabriel’s eyes flick to the sky and back. “I think he wants to just rip all of it apart. This world, and the next if he can. He doesn’t want to rule, he just wants to annihilate. I never expected that.”

“Leaving God to start all over, if he’s still around at all?”

“I guess so.”

Sam is taken aback by the tear the slips from Gabriel’s eye and slides down his cheek. “Gabriel…”

The archangel turns away. “At least I won’t be around to watch him destroy our family. I don’t think I could bear that.”

Sam’s eyes are tortured. “You could go back…try to warn them…”

“They already know,” Gabriel says, gently now as he takes in Sam’s expression. “And my place is right here with you, whatever happens.”

The first sob is torn out of him, gasping and fearful and full of _so much_ , so much he could never put words to, and he allows himself to be pulled into Gabriel’s arms so they can mourn the loss of everything together.

~*~

_The first time they fucked, it was hard and frantic and messy, two months after the beginning of the end of the world. It was a lifeline, Sam grasping hard to the only thing he had left to hold on to. It would have been eerily reminiscent of Ruby, except that Gabriel was just as broken as he was._

_It wasn't a regular thing, not at first. It was only when things got particularly bad, which they didn’t start to do with any regularity until later on._

_When the reapers first began appearing in mass quantities, taking out whole towns in a blink, Sam slammed Gabriel facedown on a table and pounded into him, knowing Gabriel could take it as hard as he could give it, and Gabriel did so because he knew it was the only way to ease Sam's hopeless frustration._

_When they accidentally came upon Lucifer's host of renegade angels, and Gabriel was forced to fight for their lives against his brothers and sisters, he bound Sam to a bed after and tortured him into sweet submission, needing to find control over his own scattered, shredded emotions._

_When they were both almost killed in a holy fire that razed New Orleans to the ground, they came together after fiercely – **desperately** – each making the other beg and break and come helplessly over and over again until they were so fucked out that Sam couldn't move for three days._

_That was when Gabriel gave up his powers for good. He'd become a master at disguising his grace, but it was becoming too risky now, so he shoved it deep, smothered it within his vessel. He pushed it down so deep that an angel standing right next to him would have trouble sensing him. So deep that for the first time in his entire existence, **he** could no longer feel **them**. It wore on him painfully, being so cut off and alone, and Sam spent night after night taking him slowly, and in ways that left them both breathless, trying to show Gabriel in any way he could that he wasn’t alone, that he still had a connection to **someone.**_

~*~

There is an ominous rumbling deep within the earth, and the sky remains a deep red color, just a few shades shy of true crimson. Sam ignores both and cooks some more of the deer meat, eating numbly and wondering why he’s even bothering to do so. But when Gabriel sits next to him and eats a few chunks himself, it comes to him that they’re simply eating for the pleasure of doing so. One last time and all that. The thought doesn’t make him panic the way he thinks it should. Oddly, it brings with it a strange sense of peace. “How long will it take?” he eventually asks.

Gabriel pops the last piece of meat into his mouth and sucks his fingers clean as he weighs his answer. “Not long now. Lucifer began it at dawn. It will end at sundown. But it’ll just be a lot of little things…most people won’t know it for what it is till the very end. And when the big finale happens, it’ll be all at once. Quick and painless.” He looks out into the distance, something heavy in his gaze. “Sam…”

“Take me somewhere,” Sam interrupts. He can’t. He can’t listen to Gabriel talk like they’re going to die, no matter how inevitable it is now. He’s lost everything, and all he wants is to pretend, just for a while. When Gabriel looks at him in confusion, he clarifies. “It can’t matter now if you use your powers. Lucifer won’t care anymore, and even if he does, by the end of the day… You can adequately hide us for one day, even if you’re not smothering your grace, right?”

The archangel nods slowly, his hazel eyes flickering between warm and unsure.

“So let’s go somewhere. Somewhere we can pretend…” Sam swallows. “Anywhere we won’t see the sky or feel the earth dying. Even one of your illusions. Just…please, Gabriel.”

“I don’t…” Gabriel stops, considers. A light comes into his eyes after a moment and he smiles softly, standing and tugging Sam to his feet. “You trust me?”

“Course I do,” Sam murmurs. “What kind of stupid ques –”

He’s interrupted when Gabriel reaches forward and presses two fingers to his forehead, and the world goes bright and new. When he stumbles, the archangel’s hand on his waist steadies him, and he stares around in wonder.

They’re in a tiny clearing, smack dab in a forest that could be straight out of a fairy tale. A canopy of trees in all different shades of green hang over them, shading them from the sun burning high in a perfect azure sky. Sam can hear, somewhere close by, a trickle of a stream, and all around him there are wildflowers growing in every color imaginable. As he stares around in wonder, a deer steps out of the trees into the clearing and regards them for a long moment before darting away again, completely at ease with the world around it. “Where are we?” Sam breathes.

“This was my favorite spot in all of Eden,” is the quiet reply.

Sam’s eyes snap to Gabriel’s, and Gabriel grins a little sadly. “Yeah, _that_ Eden. It’s not real, of course, but I wanted to show you. I mean, why not, right? If we’re gonna go, might as well be in style.”

“Jesus, Gabriel,” Sam says.

Gabriel smirks. “What, you want to bring him into this, too? Good guy, but he was kinda boring. I’m sure I can come up with a decent likeness if you really want.”

Sam laughs helplessly, can’t possibly do anything else as he brushes the backs of his knuckles across Gabriel’s cheek. The archangel catches and clasps his hand, and his eyes go heated as Sam steps into his space, the laughter dying off, replaced by something else entirely.

They’re well past the point where they need words. When Sam’s lips meet Gabriel’s, the archangel knows that Sam is telling him he loves him, that here at the end of all things, he’s grateful to be with him. When Gabriel’s hand slides under Sam’s shirt and traces a line of fire along his skin, the hunter knows that he’s responding in kind, and telling Sam that he was worth it.

Clothes are removed with reckless abandon, skin revealed an inch at a time and then claimed reverently with hands and mouths, feather-light touches and suckling kisses. They roll together in the soft dew-slick grass, and take each other slowly, ecstasy mounting until it can no longer be contained. When they reach that brink of fierce rapture, they fall together, and Gabriel’s hand slots against Sam’s hip, fire racing through their veins as they spiral out of control.

For a fraction of a moment, a light intense enough to burn sears across Sam’s vision, and then it becomes bearable, coalescing into the shape of wings stretched over them, Gabriel’s wings, wings made of luminescent flame and stormy shadow, and Sam gasps, his eyes lighting in awe.

Gabriel trembles, leaning down to press his forehead to Sam’s as he visibly pulls himself in, the loss of control frightening him as much as it thrills Sam. “Geez, Sammy,” Gabriel breathes when he finally has enough control to pull away. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” His hazel eyes bore into Sam, and the hunter smiles reassuringly.

“I’m fine. That was…God, Gabriel, that was amazing.” He’s silent for a moment, just floating on the hazy memory. Then he pushes Gabriel back and moves to sit up, wincing at a brief flare of pain on his hip. He sees Gabriel flush, and is struck for a brief moment by the new knowledge that angels can blush, before his gaze catches on the handprint seared across his flesh. His eyes widen and fly back to Gabriel’s.

“It, ah… It’s a bit late for it to matter,” Gabriel says, running a hand through his hair, looking sheepish, which makes Sam want to laugh incredulously. “But I…marked you. It’s, ah…sort of an angelic claim?”

He looks like he expects Sam to be angry, and the hunter bites back an amused smile, because honestly, he’s the exact opposite of angry. “I see…” he says. He’s seen a mark like it, of course, but this one seems different. Clearer, somehow, and more permanent.

“I mean, the world is done, and there probably won’t be anything left. But, if there’s any sort of afterlife…if my Father at least cares enough to preserve _that_ …I want to be able to find you. No matter what.”

Sam tugs him forward, wraps his arms around him and presses a kiss into his hair with a soft sigh. Like this, in this place, with this angel…he can believe in eternity.

~*~

_It wasn’t like he’d gone into the end of the world hoping or expecting to fall in love. When it happened – or, more accurately, when he **realized** it had happened – he was terrified. He replayed every interaction they’d ever had in his head, wondering when a need for release had become a need to comfort, and when that had become what it was now: an overwhelming need for simply **Gabriel** , in any way the archangel would allow._

_He tried to attribute it to clinging too tightly after he’d lost Dean. He tried to tell himself it wasn’t really **love** , just his mind’s way of trying to cope. But he was lying to himself, and eventually, Gabriel called him on it._

_By declaring his own feelings first._

~*~

Sam doesn’t recall falling asleep – he certainly didn’t intend to, wanting to spend as much time as they had left just enjoying these last few moments of peace with Gabriel – but he wakes to the archangel’s hand carding through his too-long hair, quietly murmuring something in the language of the angels. Sam shifts, but doesn’t try to untangle their limbs, and Gabriel quiets. “I’m sorry,” Sam says softly. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“I like watching you sleep.”

Sam is struck anew by the differences between the being Gabriel is now, and the pagan god he was pretending to be. There’s very little of the Trickster left anymore, but Sam realizes now that it was just a shield anyway. This, here, now, is Gabriel with no defenses. This is him, trusting Sam enough to be only himself.

He wonders if the archangel is listening to his thoughts, because Gabriel’s next words, said in the barest whisper, are, “In a different time, in a different world…I would have Fallen for you, Sam Winchester.”

Sam’s throat closes, his chest constricting painfully, and he can’t reply. But Gabriel doesn’t seem to need one.

“Almost time,” he says, a few endless moments later.

Sam nods. Even here, in this perfect illusion, he can feel it.

As though responding to their thoughts, the earth suddenly gives a violent quake. Gabriel’s illusion wavers, then shatters, and they’re back in the forest by a fire that has long since gone cold underneath a crimson sky shot through with streaks of flame.

Gabriel stands, staring up at the sky with ageless eyes, his expression bleak and hopeless. Sam rises next to him and places a hand on his shoulder. The flashes of fire that shoot across the sky begin to increase, and grow closer. He’s probably imagining it, but Sam thinks he can feel the heat of it against his skin, and he trembles.

Gabriel turns back to him, pulls him into a hard, hungry kiss. Sam moans into it, pressing into the archangel, trying to forget everything that isn’t the two of them, right here. He hears a rustling sound, feels warmth and light and something like electricity against his skin, and when he opens his eyes and pulls away a little, it’s not the Gabriel he’s used to seeing that he’s looking at. It’s Gabriel the archangel, in full glory, wings spread, eyes golden and shimmering. A halo of light envelops him, and Sam’s eyes water but don’t burn, and it’s the most incredible thing in the world, to be given this last gift. “Gabriel…” he murmurs.

Gabriel tugs him forward again, and his beautiful, shining wings close around them, blocking out the world as they hold each other. Sam’s skin tingles everywhere, a buzzing sensation that’s better than any high, and he feels it burn away all the darkness inside him. The doubts, the fears, the insecurities, the sadness…it’s all buried under the indescribable feeling of the archangel, and he revels in it for as long as he can.

They cling together as they sky overhead ignites and the earth gives a mighty roar, and everything erupts in a brilliant explosion of light.

-

  


  


  


  
[Cover Art by fox4859 on DeviantArt](http://fox4859.deviantart.com/gallery/23874842?offset=24#/d2mtmot)   


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